by Cara Dee
Once again, Gray turned to Darius, but there was nothing. Not until the sounds from the two men were fading, their feet rapidly running up the stairs. Then Darius jerked his chin in the same direction, and they followed.
“Where are we going?” Gray asked, out of breath. “We should be hiding Vanya somewhere else.”
“No time. Up here.” Darius took aim as they headed up another level, and Gray realized they were heading for the staterooms where Cole, Oscar, and Lee were.
At least it should be easy to rescue them. Their owners were already dead. Milo and Charlie were another matter. They were below them, a bit closer to the center of the yacht, if Gray had counted the numbered doors right.
Darius stopped outside Cole’s cabin. “Listen to me carefully now.” He leveled Gray with a grim look. “Unless the boys are restrained in a way that you need my help, I’m gonna leave this to you. I have to go get Charlie and Milo downstairs because their buyers should be feeling better now. The last thing we want is for them to give more resistance.”
“I understand.” Gray nodded quickly.
Darius pointed his gun at the lock on the door. “Once you’re alone, you’ll only have a minute or so. They’ll hear the gunfire.”
It was okay. Gray had gotten his shit together, and his mind started racing to think of complications. He’d free Cole first and— “I need an extra gun. Cole will help out.”
“Unless he’s too injured.” Darius wasted no time and fired at the lock, causing the door to rattle. Then he rammed his shoulder against the door, without much happening. “Fuck.” He glared and took aim at the hinges instead. Gray plugged his ears and flinched at the piercing sounds, but it was worth it. The door flew open, and Gray darted inside to find Cole naked, restrained, and gagged on the bed.
Darius surveyed the room, handed an extra gun over to Gray, and said he’d get the other door.
Gray didn’t waste any time. He shoved the glimpses he got of torture devices on the desk out of his mind and hurried over to the bed. Cole’s wide eyes full of frenzy, unshed tears, and hope became etched into Gray’s goddamn retinas.
He spoke with his voice thick from a sudden onslaught of emotion. “Sorry it took so long. We’re improvising a bit.” He folded Cole’s hand forward as much as he could and directed the gun at the shackle. Cole jumped at the gunfire, and Gray got one hand free.
On the other side of the bed, he did the same, aiming at the chain by the lock mechanism.
There was a sharp rap on the doorframe; it was Darius. “You’re on your own. Lee and Oscar will be fine. Meet me by the stairs on this floor when you’re done.”
“We’ll hurry.” Gray refocused on Cole, who was tearing off the ball gag strapped around his head.
“Fuck…” Cole heaved a breath and pulled his hands to him. “I thought the whole thing was off.”
Gray shook his head and glanced around quickly for something Cole could wear. “Are you okay to fight if it comes to—”
“For my fucking life, man.” Cole grunted and got rid of the spreader bar between his ankles.
“It’s loaded. Just pull the trigger if you see someone.” Gray put the second gun on the mattress for Cole and picked up a pair of discarded boxer briefs off the floor. “I’ll go help Lee and Oscar.”
Entering the next room, he encountered both the others in the process of untying the rope that’d restrained them together. Darius must’ve freed their hands before taking off. Lee was worse off than Oscar, though neither had been spared abuse. Gray worried about the noticeable limp that Lee—shit. Gray ducked automatically at the sound of gunfire; he’d never fucking get used to it. Three rapid shots. It better be Darius who was freeing Charlie and Milo. There was a wife or something to kill too, wasn’t there? Another double shot.
How many owners were still—
“What’s happening?” Oscar asked shakily. “That guy—your owner. He told us to listen to you.”
“We’re taking back our freedom.” Gray helped rid them of the rope and wiped his forehead with the back of his hand. Sweat and blood were smeared all over him, and he had to look like a complete psycho. “Stay behind Cole and me, okay? We’ll explain everything.”
Soon it was the four of them out in the hallway, with Gray taking the lead and Cole covering their backs, and they moved hurriedly toward the stairs. Darius was on his way too; Gray spotted him coming up the stairs with Milo thrown over his shoulder and Charlie limping and clinging to Darius’s free arm.
Gray told the others to stay put, then ran toward Darius to help out.
“Are we really going home?” Charlie croaked. The frenzy in his stricken gaze was getting too fucking familiar for Gray, who merely nodded and let the guy lean on him instead.
“G-Gray?” The hoarse whisper came from Milo. “Is that you? I’m s-scared.”
“I’m here, Milo. You’re safe now.” Gray wasn’t sure the boy had heard him. As they headed closer to the stairs, he walked slightly behind Darius, and he carefully pushed some hair away from Milo’s face. His eyes remained swollen shut, and the dried blood around his ears spoke of repeated abuse with a vicious purpose.
Milo whimpered at the light touch, and Gray removed his hand, unsure. He didn’t know just how traumatized Milo had been, but he guessed a whole fucking lot.
Upon reaching the stairs, Darius told everyone they were going to the pilothouse. Cole insisted on helping him and Gray, and Darius didn’t say no. They did need the assistance, because at this point it was a round of hide-and-seek. Red and the few guards who were left could be anywhere, and then there was the matter of Vanya.
A gunshot rang out somewhere above them, causing Charlie and Milo to cry out, and Darius cursed. As if this wasn’t bad enough, the gunfire was followed by someone screaming, “I’m going to fucking murder you!” and Gray would know that voice anywhere. Vanya had been freed.
“Darius,” Gray whispered urgently.
“I’m thinking,” he snapped under his breath. “All right. Counting high, can’t be more than five guards left, including remaining crew. Only one guest left aside from me—Milo’s owner.”
“Red and Vanya,” Gray added quietly.
Darius nodded with a dip of his chin and lowered Milo to the floor. “Boys, I need you to help him. Stay behind us.” He was looking at Lee and Oscar. “Cole, Gray, I need you both ready. Chances are they’re trying to get into the bridge, and if we lose that area, they can contact the mainland.” He paused, eyeing Cole. “You ever fire a gun before, son?”
Cole nodded. “Yes, sir. Grew up on a ranch.”
“Then don’t point it at your feet. Let’s go.”
Gray’s mouth twitched, and he took in Cole’s chagrined scowl with a pinch of amusement. It was about as much fun as they had time for, and shortly after, they were moving again. Swiftly and silently up the stairs, three guns took the lead with Darius’s in the middle, and Lee, Oscar, and Charlie followed with Milo.
The closer they got to the front of the yacht, the more commotion they heard.
“Just shoot the damn lock!” It was Vanya again.
“Won’t help much when they’ve blocked the door, sir,” someone else bit out. “It’s already unlocked.”
Go, Jonas, Gray thought. But whatever they had blocked the door with wouldn’t hold forever. Not with how the guard kept ramming into it, each thump growing louder.
Gray threw a glance over his shoulder to make sure they had no one following them, and he almost missed Darius’s signal. Gray frowned. Darius was insistent; he repeated the signal for two targets, then looked at Gray’s gun with a shake of his head. The stubborn bastard was going to handle this on his own because he still didn’t want Vanya dead.
Gray trusted Darius, though, and when they were close enough, he did nothing. He watched Darius take down the guard with a quick bullet before he grabbed Vanya by his throat and smashed him up against the wall.
“Where’s your mother, boy?” Darius growled.
; Vanya choked and spluttered, clawing fruitlessly at Darius’s hands and arms.
There was a faint sound behind them, and—
“Gray!” Charlie cried.
“Release my son, Mr. B.”
Gray went rigid at Red’s voice. The gun in his hand trembled. Holy fuck, had they been ambushed? The hall had been clear! Unless—fuck. Gray turned slowly, and his face drained of color. Red wasn’t alone. She and another two guards stood there, and they had guns pointed at Charlie, Milo, and Lee.
Red forced Charlie down on his knees and bumped the end of her gun against his head.
A door a few feet away was open. Maybe it was another cabin; either way, they’d probably come from there. Gray had fucking missed it.
“You can’t win this one, Valerie,” Darius said grimly. “We’ve already taken care of everyone else.”
Red barked out a loud laugh. “If only you knew how wrong you are.” A sickening smile played on her lips as her gaze traveled between the boys. It landed on Gray. “When your precious savior is dead, I’m going to sell your fucking body parts.”
Gray lifted his gun and tried not to let his hand wobble. So much could go wrong here, and fear spiked like it never had before. He did his best not to show the terror, but he wasn’t sure he managed. Red didn’t look afraid with a gun aimed at her.
“Gray?” Milo sniffled. He was trying to open his eyes without any success. “What’s going on?”
“Put your gun down, Valerie,” Darius ordered. “If you—”
“Do you think I’m playing a game?” Red shrieked. A second later, her gun was directed at Milo, and a loud shot exploded in the hallway.
Gray’s eyes widened in horror, and it was as if the whole world slowed down. He registered every fraction of a second. Milo’s expression, frozen in fright and confusion. His body sagging forward until he landed face first with a muted thud. Blood gushing out of the wound at the back of his skull.
Dead.
Dead.
She killed him.
Tears and rage flooded Gray’s eyes, and he refocused on Red. He pulled the trigger once. Twice. Three, four, five fucking times. He shot her over and over, and he cursed, and he screamed, and he flew into her so they tumbled to the floor. More shots rang out. Chaos erupted. Gray didn’t give a fuck. He only saw this ugly fucking creature, and he kept emptying his gun. He shot her in the stomach, in the shoulder, in the neck, several times in her face. Click, click, click. His hand trembled, his vision was too blurry, his chest heaved. Gun empty. He punched her instead. He smashed his fists into her bloody mess of a head, he lifted it and crushed it against the carpet, and he screamed out the pain.
Fuck, he couldn’t breathe. The hurt was eating him alive. She’d killed him… Milo was gone. That sweet fucking kid, dead for nothing. Dead because of these sick monsters.
He was just a kid.
The pain spread in sharp pulses and became one with his rapid heartbeat. It was the only thing Gray heard. He heard the agony, was consumed by it, and he barely registered that someone was pulling him away.
“He was just a kid…” The strangled sob that escaped his throat didn’t sound like him.
Gray, Gray, Gray, knucklehead. “Gray.” A growl pierced through the thick fog. “Snap the fuck out of it. I need you.”
Gray buried his face in his hands, unable to stop crying, unable to stop the murderous hatred, unable to stop his chest from cracking wide open. Snap out of it. Darius needs you. He needs you. Gray tried. He fucking tried, but the grief was crippling. If only one innocent guy had been able to walk away from this, he would’ve wanted it to be Milo.
“Knucklehead, listen to me. It’s not over yet. We have to secure the boat.”
Secure the…fuck, because there were others. Another surge of wrath took hold of Gray, but this time, it pushed him forward. He shoved at the arms that had him in a protective cage, and he flew up from the floor to survey the hallway. Blood…fucking everywhere. Two guards down—dead. Vanya—dead. Cole was kneeling over Milo’s body, crying silently and wiping blood from the boy’s face.
Lee and Oscar were trying to comfort Charlie.
“Come here.” Darius filled Gray’s field of vision and had a tie in his hands. Hadn’t he given that to Jonas…? “Can you focus?”
Gray nodded dumbly and side-eyed the dead guards. And Red was…unrecognizable. Wait. One of the guards no longer had a tie around his neck, and then Darius was down on one knee before Gray, tying the black silk around his thigh.
Gray hissed at a sudden burst of fiery pain. “What’re you doing?” he rasped.
“You caught a stray bullet when you dove.”
Oh. “It doesn’t feel that bad.”
“It will.” Darius finished the temporary solution—to limit the bleeding, Gray realized. “We’ll get the bullet out and dress it later. Right now, we have company. Think you can suck it up?”
“Dick,” Gray whispered under his breath. “Yeah, I’m with you. What company?”
Darius rose from the floor and sent the ceiling a glance. “Helicopter.”
Gray wiped the tears from his face and tried to hear anything, but his ears wouldn’t have it. There was an underlying ringing sound and the wash of the ocean; that was it.
Darius turned to Cole. “You up for it, kid?”
Before Cole could answer, two gunshots blasted through the air outside. Darius narrowed his eyes at the ceiling, and Gray’s heart jumped up in his throat. At least it plugged the grief temporarily, and he could think again.
“Who’s shooting?” he croaked. “Shit—there’s that guy from the staff. Owen? Are they hurting him?” Fuck if Gray knew, but he wouldn’t put it past whoever was still alive. A guard or two, the owner from Texas…
“No, I don’t think so, but we gotta go.” Darius handed Gray a new gun, and Cole still had his. Before they went anywhere, Darius double-knocked on the door to the pilothouse and told Jonas to open. Then he instructed Charlie, Lee, and Oscar to hide out with the staff.
On the way to the stairs, Gray inspected his new gun, sure this one felt lighter. It’d belonged to a guard. And right then, he heard something. Had Darius been right? Was there a helicopter nearby? It was getting closer. A juddering thump-thump-thump-thump of the blades had Darius taking three steps at a time before he came to an abrupt stop in the little alcove at the landing. On the other side of the glass door was the upper deck, and they didn’t know what they were facing.
“You boys stay behind me,” Darius commanded quietly. He was looking out the glass, maybe trying to spot the helicopter. He barely fucking flinched when another shot was fired, this one cracking like thunder.
Someone screamed somewhere on the deck.
Darius rubbed a hand over his jaw. “It’s starting to look a lot like friendly fire.”
That was…good? Right?
The helicopter had to be over them, or really close, when Darius carefully opened the door and peered outside. Gray was right there with him, and he watched as a black chopper came into view on their port side. A man was visible in the back, where it was completely open, and he was attaching something to his waist and making a rapid circular motion to the pilot. However the pilot responded, the other man gave a thumbs-up and picked up a bundle of rope.
When Gray caught the man’s profile, there was no missing the rifle on his back. Even against the army green of his body-hugging T-shirt, the black weapon that looked like it belonged in a war zone stood out like a sore thumb. It screamed of danger, and Gray inched toward to Darius. Who was…smirking?
“Angel’s gonna fucking kill me,” he murmured.
“Who?” Gray frowned.
“My brother’s wife.” Darius opened the door wider and stepped out onto the deck as the chopper hovered closer. The rope was dropped and landed near the pool. “And that…is Ryan.”
Sixteen
But…what? That hadn’t been the plan, had it? His brother wasn’t supposed to be here now.
Ryan w
as out of the helicopter, lowering himself to the yacht like he’d done it a million times before. Gray knew about his military background, so perhaps he had. He had the same badass fuck-off vibe that Darius had, and they were built similarly. Broad shoulders, muscular arms and thighs, solid frames, without looking too cut. It was strength that’d been built over years and years of service.
“You felt now was the time to bring in the cavalry? When we’re done?” Darius walked toward his brother, and he tucked his gun into his pants at the base of his spine.
Ryan landed with a thump and signaled something to the chopper. Then he wiped a hand over his mouth before it stretched into a grin. “Didn’t I just take care of three men for you? I’m pretty fucking sure I did.”
Gray stayed back with Cole, who looked confused.
“Darius’s brother,” Gray explained quietly. “He’s been helping out.”
“Oh.” Cole squinted into the sunlight as the helicopter left.
“What the hell are you even doing here?” Darius clapped Ryan on the cheek and pulled him in for a hug. “How did you know it was safe?”
“Squeezy got into the surveillance system, so she alerted me when everything went dark. You’ve also been way off course for the past hour. I’m guessing autopilot.” Ryan wrapped up the hug with a smack to the back of Darius’s head. “You can’t stick to a goddamn plan, can you?”
“Gray’s like Lias. He has to save the strays.” Darius rubbed the back of his head while Ryan glanced over at Gray with amusement in his eyes. They were bluer than Darius’s hazel ones.
“Good quality. Nice to see you alive, son,” Ryan said with a nod at Gray. “Your family’s waiting for you back in Miami.”
Mom…? Gray swallowed hard. The whole thing was bizarre. There was no way, was there? Like…was it over? Incomprehensible. Actually, he refused to believe it. Mom and his brothers existed in another world, one that was nothing like this hell. Here, people died. Here, Milo was shot in the head for no motherfucking reason other than Red wanting to show she was serious. Here, Linus was used for target practice before his body was lost in the ocean forever.
